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20081230

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I won a bid on a 1950s Graflex Peacemaker Crown Graphic 4x5 field camera!!

..for under $70 bucks!!!

And even with shipping and insurance it's only a few cents over $100.

It's a full kit including the camera, large metal case, 10 film holders, a flash bulb lamp (no flash bulbs included), an assortment of cable and air release cords, and original manuals/literature. And it all appears to be in really good condition.

But there is some significant risk: the seller stated outright that the item(s) are being sold "as is". He/she photographed everything pretty thoroughly, but doesn't know cameras/photography and didn't photograph the camera open. so, i don't know the condition of the more vital parts like the lens, bellows, track guides, etc. I don't even have a guarantee that there is even a lens...

But judging on all the other images, I'm going to make an ass-out-of-u-and-me that there's a lens tucked safely inside (that probably hasn't seen the light of day in decades). It'll most likely be a 135mm f/4.7 Graflex Optar lens or 127mm f/4.7 Kodak Ektar lens (this model's factory lenses ranged from a 90mm wide-angle to 162 short-telephoto).

Worst case scenario: it's a scam and the camera's completely thrashed/gutted, I could still sell the film holders and accessories separately and make back my money.

So, granted nothing's hatched yet, and I'm already counting the hell out of these eggs.. but DAMN I'm excited!

It's the end of fall semester and the end of the first 8-week CoOp internship for the Commercial Photography students. So, some photokids and myself went out on Tate St in Greensboro at El Carreton and New York Pizza II for food, drinks, and camera passing.

I ran out of time while scanning negatives at school, so during a little bit of down time on internship, I decided to try a little idea..

I typically scan 35mm film photos on a Nikon Coolscan V ED. I wanted to see what I could do with a very basic (and somewhat halfass) light-table/copy-stand setup.

I used a small softbox under a translucent panel to act as a light table, a tripod and boom with a C-stand acted as my copy stand, and scrap matte board was used to cut down on glare/fogging.

The results are sketchy at best, due to several issues: the translucent panel was rather dirty and scratched. I did not set-up or use any kind of negative holder, so the negatives are not held flat against the panel. I set my focus and macro ratio (>1:1), but neither the C-stand nor tripod had any sort of geared rise/fall, so adjusting/repositioning the negatives was difficult. And many of the negatives themselves were poorly exposed making a less-than-ideal control/subject for this little experiment.

I made my "scans" with a Nikon D3 and Nikon AF 60mm f/2.8 macro lens. I edited the images through Adobe Photoshop CS3 and CS2. The black and white negatives cameout with a far lower contrast than desired. The C-41 processed XP2 has a red-ish purple base that becomes a cool cyan blue when inverted. I left the color in most as a style choice. The color negatives were also low contrast. And color was very hard to control. The inverted Kodak Gold 200 had a very blue cast. But the film was expired, color balanced for daylight, but shot under tungsten, and many were very under exposed. Also, I was unable to use dust cleaning, sharpening, grain and color adjustment features that come standard with Nikon Coolscan and other film scanning software.

In the end, I like the results. Because of the dust and scratches, along with the rough edges and distortion.

There was one positive result: Many of the very underexposed negative were virtually unsalvageable using the Nikon Coolscan V ED because of its automatic analog gain adjustment. Those negatives came out far better using my DIY method.